UNIX System Recovery

Attingo developed special methods for successfully recostructing data from any kind of UNIX derivate.

Applications of UNIX systems

Due to the commercialization of the operating system many independent versions for different (proprietary) devices were developed:

• Industral measuring and controlling equipment
• Entertainment electronics
• Motor vehicles
• Webservers
• High end storage solutions (NAS, SAN, RAID)

UNIX (and its derivates) is primarliy used as controlling software in NAS, SAN and RAID systems in order to configure the desired RAID level. Nevertheless malfunction and data loss are not uncommon.

Data rescue from HP-UX (Hewlett Packard UNIX)

HP-UX is a proprietray operating system, which was developed in 1984 for HP 9000 computers based on UNIX system V. It's one of the first UNIX derivates which already includes a LVM (logical volume manager) in the operating system. Attingo is specialized in RAID recovery and was able to help customers with all different kinds of HP 9000 servers and workstation models by reconstructing data successfully.

HP-UX is the first UNIX with access control lists for extended authorization control. It uses the file systems VxFS (veritas file system) and HFS. Improved reliabilty, security and enhanced performance and partitioning are the main focal points for the development of the operating system.

Virtualization under HP-UX extends from hardware partitions to virtual machines. Therefore other operating systems (e.g. Windows, Linux, OPenVMS 8.4, HP-UX) can be used as guest operating systems. For this reason UNIX is often used for RAID servers or database systems (Informix).

Normally SCSI hard drives with differential signal levels (high-voltage-differential) are used with HP-UX servers, for example HP 9GBWD (e.g. HP A3647A, HP A4910A oder HP A5238A ).

Occasionally our Attingo technicians got to work with tapes as storage media for HP-UX systems. 3D Digital Data Storage and 125 m Maxel are often used.

HP-UX Workstations

• Series 200 — 216 (HP 9816), 217 (HP 9817), 220 (HP 9920), 226 (HP 9826), 236 (HP 9836), 237 (HP 9837)
• Series 300 — 310, 318, 319, 320, 322, 330, 332, 340, 345, 350, 360, 362, 370, 375, 380, 382, 385
• Series 400 (HP Apollo 9000 Series 400) — 400dl, 400s, 400t, 425dl, 425e, 425s, 425t, 433dl,433s, 433t
• Series 500 — 520 (HP 9020), 530 (HP 9030), 540 (HP 9040), 550, 560
• Series 600 — 635SV, 645SV
• Series 700 — 705, 710, 712, 715, 720, 725, 730, 735, 742, 743, 744, 745, 747, 748, 750, 755
• B-class — B132L, B160L, B132L+, B180L, B1000, B2000, B2600
• C-class — C100, C110, C132L, C160, C160L, C180, C180L, C180XP, C200, C240, C360, C3000, C3600, C3650, C3700, C3750, C8000
• J-class — J200, J210, J210XC, J280, J282, J2240, J5000, J5600, J6000, J6700, J6750, J7000

HP-UX Server

• 800 Series — 807, 817, 822, 825, 827, 832, 835, 837, 840, 842, 845, 847, 850,855, 857, 867, 877, 887, 897
• 1200 FT Series — 1210, 1245, 1245 PLUS
• A-class — A180, A180C (Staccato), A400, A500
• D-class — D200, D210, D220, D230, D250, D260, D270, D280, D300, D310, D320, D330, D350, D360, D370, D380, D390
• E-class — E25, E35, E45, E55
• F-class — F10, F20, F30 (Nova)
• G-class — G30, G40, G50, G60, G70 (Nova)
• H-class — H20, H30, H40, H50, H60, H70
• I-class — I30, I40, I50, I60, I70
• K-class — K100, K200, K210, K220, K250, K260, K360, K370, K380, K400, K410, K420, K450, K460, K570, K580
• L-class — L1000, L1500, L2000, L3000
• N-class — N4000
• R-class — R380, R390
• S-class — rebadged Convex Exemplar SPP2000 (single-node)
• T-class — T500, T520, T600
• V-class — V2200, V2250, V2500, V2600
• X-class — rebadged Convex Exemplar SPP2000 (multi-node)
• rp2400 — rp2400 (A400), rp2405 (A400), rp2430 (A400), rp2450 (A500), rp2470 (A500) (previously A-class)
• rp3400 — rp3410-2, rp3440-4 (1-2 PA-8800/8900 processors)
• rp4400 — rp4410-4, rp4440-8
• rp5400 — rp5400, rp5405, rp5430, rp5450, rp5470 (previously L-class)
• rp7400 — rp7400 (previously N-class)
• rp7405 — rp7405, rp7410, rp7420-16, rp7440-16
• rp8400 — rp8400, rp8410, rp8420-32, rp8440-32
• HP 9000 Superdome — SD-32, SD-64, SD-128 (PA-8900 processors)

Data rescue from Solaris

Attingo has gathered a lot of experience in the last centuries with data recovery from Solaris-systems aswell as Open Solaris and SunOS on x86 and SPARC infrastructure. Just like with other BSD and UNIX operating systems, the failure is often based on a physical defect of the hard disk.

General information about UNIX

Unix is a multi-user operating system, which means it is able to provide and define work environments for multiple users. In the beginning it was used by Bell Laboratories for software development. It works with the file systems UFS, UFS2 and FFS and supports different processor architectures  (i386, MIPS, PA-RISC, HP/PA, IA-64).
Relevant concepts for file and operating system standards could be developed thank to Unix, for example the tree-like, hierarchical file system with folder structure. Another achievement is the typical use of hard drives and drives as files.

In the 1980ies it was refined as an open operating system at Amercian universities and gained popularity in the hacker culture. From the 1990ies it was increasingly used in workstations or servers. Ten years later it gained huge popularity thanks to the application in mobile devices.